‘Bala’ Trailer, Release Date Irks ‘Ujda Chaman’ Makers; Director Pathak Ready To Take Legal Recourse

Ayushman Khurrana starrer ‘Bala’ trailer released a day ago and much like its subject has much resemblance with Ujda Chaman.  As the Bala makers decided to release the movie a day before its contemporary ‘Ujda Chaman’, the makers of the later film has accused the former of copyright violation.

It so happened that Ujda Chaman starring Sunny Singh in the lead role is an official remake of 2017 Kannada film Ondu Motteya Kathe. The makers marketed it as the first Bollywood film featuring a bald protagonist, 'Takle ki pehli aur asli film'. 

While Ujda Chaman is slated for a November 8 release, Bala which is based on a similar theme of a man dealing with premature balding, which was supposed to release on November 15, announced a new release date i.e. November 7, a day before Ujda Chaman. 

Change in 'Bala' release date left Kumar Mangat and Abhishek Pathak, the makers of Ujda Chaman fuming. While Kumar Mangat called the sudden change in the release date "extremely unethical and wrong", his son Abhishek Pathak, who is making his directorial debut with Ujda Chaman think that 'Bala' makers are on 'shaky grounds' 

"Are they scared of my film when they have a big star like Ayushmann Khurrana ? While I think they have an upper hand, it appears that they feel they are on shaky ground and hence, are resorting to such things." told director Abhishek Pathak to Mid-Day. Claiming that his production house had sent a public notice to Vijan in April when they learnt of the similarity between the two stories, Pathak said

"They assured us that their film is different, and I took their word for it. But we can all see that there is a blatant resemblance in the lead characters. We may take legal recourse."

 Maddock films replying to Panorama Movies’ accusations said, “ It's unfortunate if a fellow filmmaker sees this as anything but a positive for audiences. Maddock stands firmly by the originality of its film, and will back its project all the way, including through legal recourse if need be."